Trip Reports - A Six-Airline Trip from Sydney to Bangalore and Back

Part One: SYD to SIN on Qantas, and the Westin Stamford in Singapore


Left my apartment in Sydney's CBD and strolled up to Central Station to catch the train to "International". Noted, as always, the confusion of most passengers as the train stopped at Mascot - should they get off or not? All Sydneysiders know Sydney's airport as Mascot, so the rail managers have stuck tacky little paper notices at the new Mascot station saying, "next stop Domestic terminal".

It's like as if the station before Heathrow was called Heathrow, if you know what I mean.

Three escalators later I'm in the ticketing area, and I stroll to a queue-less Qantas First-Class position to get my boarding-pass for QF 123 to Singapore. As an AA Executive Platinum (and, therefore, One World Emerald), I am entitled to check-in here, although this time I'm travelling in Economy. (Although my company normally flies us in Business on longer flights, we are having a Q4 drive to save money, so it's coach for all!). I ask the agent whether I could secure an aisle seat with an empty seat next to it, but she say's "I doubt it" and doesn't bother to check. I decide to ask again at the Qantas lounge, and make my way through immigration and security for a quick stroll to Gate 25, where the lounge is located.

I ask again at the lounge check-in, and this time the polite agent does a thorough check, and tells me that, sadly, the flight is full. Unlike the flight, the First-class lounge is almost empty, and I secure a desk, and check the usual selection of cold sandwiches and salad, and grab a glass of a nice Western Australian Cabernet.

A couple of hours of work later, I stroll to the nearby Gate 23, and board with the business class folks, and take my seat, 26J, in the two-class 767-300. The features in coach do not compare to what is now becoming common among carriers in the region. No seat-back videos, just a screen on the bulk-head; also no menus and no amenity kits whatsoever. It's basically like travelling first class on American from a city like Nashville to LAX, i.e. free drinks and a meal, and a movie show or two. The difference is that it's a seven and a half-hour flight, but, of course, it's in economy. I noticed immediately that my overhead light was not working, but I decided to wait until after take-off to see whether this was a real problem. As the agent had said, this looked like a full flight in coach, although business was less than one-third full.

We took off on-time, and when we levelled-out I put on my Sony noise cancelling phones and plugged in to my arm-rest to hear what audio entertainment was available. The answer was just one channel - playing oldies ("Hotel California", actually). My little seat-side controller for channels, lights and even the attendant call button, was totally dead! My thoughts immediately centred on a discussion I would have with the Customer Service Manager. Surely an upgrade to one of those empty business-class seats was in the bag, since economy appeared full. Alas, it was not to be: the manager, when he appeared after the initial drinks service, was apologetic, and acknowledged my frequent flyer status and addressed me personally. But, he had
found the one remaining aisle seat in coach: 26B. I relocated, and all was well in my economy audio world.

The rest of the 7 hours of this flight were pretty mundane. Lunch was a choice of pepper chicken and rice or a vegetable curry and rice - I chose the chicken, and it was OK. The tray also included a little salad and some chocolate cake, which I ignored. The "refreshment" before landing was a hot focaccia sandwich with grilled eggplant and bell peppers - actually, and somewhat surprisingly, this was quite tasty.

Between lunch and the snack, two movies were played: Saving Grace (a funny British-made movie about a widow in dire financial straights, who uses her green-thumb skills to grow marijuana) and Wonder Boys (starring Michael Douglas). I watched the former, and laughed a lot, and read through the latter.

My overall (subjective) rating of this flight was, at best, 6 out of 10. A tired-looking, fairly unresponsive and generally unenthusiastic group of Qantas staff (from check-in to arrival) don't maketh a great flight experience.

I zipped through Changi immigration, and enjoyed the Fox candy provided in a basket at the immigration officer's desk. Out to a taxi-rank with no-line (this on a Friday night at 7:00pm!!) and S$19 ($11) and about 25 minutes later I'm at the Westin Stamford.

There was no queue at the Starwood line, and I'm greeted with enthusiasm, and upgraded to the 60th (Executive Floor), with privileges including free continental breakfast on the 70th floor, free nibbles and drinks between 5pm and 8pm in the Club lounge and free spa access. The Platinum amenity was a nice boxed set of decent wooden chopsticks and stands; also fresh-fruit, replenished daily. Thank-you Westin!!

Spent Saturday around Singapore's downtown river district, roaming the Boat and Clark Quay areas. I'll be spending a lot of time here next year, and wanted to get re-familiarised with this part of town. It was very hot and humid, and there was little activity until the evening, when, of course, it became very lively. The hot nibbles in the Club lounge tonight were little salmon satays…excellent! Of course, being the VanMan, I checked out the music stores, and was happy to pick up the new Tom Jones' "Reload", with a single duet track with the Welshman and the Irishman, for only S$16.99 ($9.70). Not bad!

Part Two will follow: Singapore to Kathmandu on Singapore Airlines in Business Class.

Commiserations on having to fly in the back. Just did the same on the same a/c type YVR-HNL-YVR. The one good thing you can say about QF Y seats is the generous recline (almost as good as QF J seats and much better than domestic F on US or AA!) and the winged somewhat adjustable head supports are good for a snooze.

As for no upgrades, a friend who has been QF Gold for the better part of a decade said he's never been upgraded once (in response to me telling him I was batting 28/29 on CP).

Part Two: Singapore to Kathmandu on Singapore Airlines in Business Class.

Bangalore, my final destination, is ill served by direct international connections, and a more direct route from Singapore to Chennai, and then on to Bangalore was full and oversold, so my travel agent (and I!) found a routing through Kathmandu and on to Bangalore on Royal Nepal Airlines. Finding the differential between business and economy on the round trip to Singapore was only about $110; I elected to fly up front on these flights.

So off we went to Changi, early on Sunday morning, to catch SQ 414 at 9am to Kathmandu.

I secured seat 2B on the Airbus 310-300, which was a 3-cabin aircraft, operating only two-classes of service, so I was in a first-class seat. But a surprisingly poorly outfitted one, a simple recline lever for the seat, and a foot rest that had to be manually lifted, with a little stand underneath that had to put in place by hand. The seat recline was very generous, however, and the footrest was more comfortable than many of those little narrow ones in business class. There was no personal TV, just audio channels. TV was a large screen on the bulkhead, and the movie was "The Kid" with Bruce Willis.

Pre-drink service was a choice of fruit juice, followed by a (very!) hot towel. The meal service on this 5 hour flight was brunch which consisted of the following:

Choice of Juices: Apple, tomato, freshly squeezed OJ

*

Fresh Fruit Appetizers

*

Cereal

*

Murgh Kothmiri
(Indian Chicken Curry with Coriander Leaves)
Cauliflower and carrot Masala
Rice Pilaff with Almonds

OR

Nasi Lemak
(Malay style Coconut Rice with Spicy Prawns, Peanuts, Grilled Fish Cake, Egg Omelette and Vegetable Pickles)


OR


Omelette with Mixed Herbs
Pork Chipolata
Green Beans and Mushrooms
New Potatoes

*

Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce

Choice of Bread Rolls

Coffee or Tea


I chose the Nasi Lemak, and found it pretty good.

A drink service was offered about two hours before landing, and I had a couple of Gin and Tonics to set me up for my three hour layover at Kathmandu International.


Part Three will follow: Kathmandu to Bangalore on Royal Nepal Airlines in Shangri-La Class

Part Three: Kathmandu to Bangalore on Royal Nepal Airlines in Shangri-La Class


We touched down in Kathmandu on time, after the Singapore crew managed to announce the wrong time, not all that surprising, considering that Kathmandu is
2 ¼ hours behind Singapore! No jetways at Kathmandu, so down the steps we went to a cool (53 degrees) sunny day. Inside the rather shabby terminal there was a plywood desk marked "Transit" where I went and presented my ticket for the next flight. The not-very friendly Nepalese agent, with little English, looked at my ticket as if it was the first one he had ever seen, but after talking to two or three of his colleagues, he realised that I was Bangalore-bound, and asked me to wait. Eventually, I was approached by another agent, and was escorted through an unmarked door, past the outward-bound security screening area, and to the airside departure lounge. (Actually, "lounge" is probably a bit generous - it was a cold area with a number of uncomfortable seats, and another plywood structure, which turned out to be the Thai/Singapore business class lounge). I was led to a seat, and asked to wait. He pointed to his watch and mimed 12:30, which was about 40 minutes from then. I sat and waited, pulling out my laptop (the only one I saw in that terminal) and worked on this trip report. 12:30 came and went, but I didn't panic, and eventually two agents arrived and took my passport and tickets, presumably to the Royal Nepal Airlines ticket desk on the other side of immigration. Ten minutes later they were back with boarding pass in-hand, indicating that I would be seated in 1D.

Finally, the boarding call was shouted (no loudspeakers in Kathmandu!) and we went to security screening, which involved a metal detector, plus a personal screening. After that I was asked by a lone inspector if I had a pocket knife, he wrote "NO" on my boarding pass, and I approached the final inspector, who looked distraught when he looked at my boarding pass, and it was obvious there was something wrong. He looked around for help, but there was none, so he put my pass under his peaked hat, which was on the table in front of him, and pointed to a row of seats on the side, saying (I think) wait. I felt that this would not be a good move, so I stood my ground, and asked "why?" Fortunately another, more impressively uniformed, inspector arrived, and the situation became clear. My pass did not have an immigration stamp; not surprisingly, since I had not been through immigration. This meant that the final inspector was not empowered to add his stamp. Fortunately the impressively uniformed inspector told the other fellow to stamp my pass anyway, which he did, so on I moved to Gate 1, of 4, at Kathmandu International.

The Royal Nepal Airlines 757 was waiting on the apron, just like it had when I had arrived about three hours ago, and after about twenty minutes we were able to walk over to the steps to the plane. Anybody with checked bags were asked to identify theirs from a large collection of luggage on the tarmac, but I travel light and mounted the steps to the plane. I had the right-hand forward bulkhead, which for more legroom had a little space cut out from the bulkhead where one's feet could extend.

The appearance of the plane was a little shabby, but no worse than one might see on a domestic 757 on a fleet like AA. We waited at the apron for quite a while as I observed distraught passengers unable to find their luggage, let alone identify it. At one point the captain went down to seemingly argue with a pair of passengers that they must board, even if their luggage was not there. He seemed to lose the argument, since he got back on board, and they stood their ground. Eventually everyone seemed to give up, and the entire unclaimed luggage was put on board anyway, and all the straggler passengers boarded too. We took off about an hour late.

There was only one other passenger in Shangri-La class, and he appeared to be an employee, since he spent most of the flight in the galley, chatting with the steward. Service was excellent, and the meal, with a little card saying that the Everest Hotel had catered it, was very good. I chose a "Lamb Cake, with Spud and Refried Beans and Samosa". This turned out to be a tasty lamb burger, accompanied by half a baked potato topped with refried beans and melted cheese, and a spicy vegetable samosa. The scotch tasted genuine, and the red wine French, and good. This was the best meal so far on this trip.

We landed an hour late; unfortunately, without a word from the cockpit. Fortunately, my hotel-provided driver was waiting for the short drive to the Taj Residency Hotel, Bangalore, in India's South

Part Four will follow: The Taj Residency, and Jet Airways to Chennai in Economy.

Enjoying your reports!

Thanks, Violist. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I too am finding these very interesting an enjoyable and hope to one day do "Kathmandu to Bangalore on Royal Nepal Airlines in Shangri-La Class!"

Thanks! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Many thanks, Doc! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Part Four: The Taj Residency, Bangalore, and Jet Airways to Chennai in Economy

The Taj Residency was not my choice, but that of my hosts. It describes itself as a business hotel, and being obviously full of both Indian and, mostly, European, businessmen it seems to be succeeding. It offered a small bedroom, a sparsely furnished executive lounge, with a happy hour from 7pm till 8pm, a free buffet breakfast in the coffee shop, a Chinese restaurant and the Jockey Club bar. The bar was having a Scottish theme, with some weird dishes never seen in Scotland, eg Bubble and Squeak Pie! They also played incessant faux Scottish music. The staff, however, were extremely friendly, something I noted throughout this Indian trip.

Sitting in my room doing some work, with CNN in the background on the TV, I suddenly was interrupted by the sounds of Indian pop music. CNN had disappeared! This was the day of Al Gore's concession speech, and I did not want to miss that, so I called the front desk. They told me that they were working on the TVs, and soon after came a knock on my door. A smiling technician came in and told me they were upgrading from the current 25 channels to no less than 65 channels! Soon CNN was back, along with BBC World, MTV and HBO, plus channel after channel of Indian TV.

Although I was in meetings most of my time in Bangalore, I did have a couple of excellent meals: one at Karavalli, which features the coastal cuisine of Southern India - the lobster and Ladyfish dishes were outstanding, and one at the Tandoor, where the fish tikka and a chicken and spinach curry were delicious. The highlight of a brief site seeing journey was the Bull temple, featuring the huge 1786 monolith of Nandi, the sacred Hindu bull.

After four nights in Bangalore, it was time to begin the return journey. I had seat 25D on the completely full Indian regional Jet Airways 737-400. The inflight magazine talked about the young 737 fleet of this airline, and the route map was criss-crossed with lines joining the hub cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai with cities all over India. The plane looked new, and it departed Bangalore on time for the 30 minute trip to Chennai (formerly Madras). The service was outstanding for such a short trip: Candies and a welcoming lime juice refresher before take-off, plus a snack consisting of a samosa and cake, and water, during the flight. We landed on time in Chennai, and my hotel-arranged courtesy car was waiting.

Part Five will follow: The Park Sheraton, Chennai, and Air India to Singapore in Business Class.

Originally posted by VanMan:
Part Four: The Taj Residency, Bangalore, and Jet Airways to Chennai in Economy

After four nights in Bangalore, it was time to begin the return journey. I had seat 25D on the completely full Indian regional Jet Airways 737-400. The inflight magazine talked about the young 737 fleet of this airline, and the route map was criss-crossed with lines joining the hub cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai with cities all over India. The plane looked new, and it departed Bangalore on time for the 30 minute trip to Chennai (formerly Madras). The service was outstanding for such a short trip: Candies and a welcoming lime juice refresher before take-off, plus a snack consisting of a samosa and cake, and water, during the flight.

Very enjoyable reports, I say!

Having flown Jet Airways quite a few times, I'd highly recommend it for intra-India travel. Excellent service, new 737s (one of the first customers for the 737NGs), a hub of sorts at Mumbai, and significantly more professional employees vs. the govt-owned Indian Airlines. Their management has some ex-Qantas people in important positions (like safety).

For those connecting from/to KLM/NW and BA at Mumbai and Delhi, Jet will through-check their baggage and issue all boarding passes. This saves a huge hassle for passengers at those airports.

Thanks, Abigail. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif and now...

Part Five: The Park Sheraton, Chennai and Air India to Singapore in Business Class


My friendly hotel-provided, uniformed driver welcomed me with a choice of Pepsi or Diet Coke, in cans, taken from a cooler in the trunk – I selected a Diet Coke, and it was served to me on a tray! This was welcome in the 88-degree heat. The car was air conditioned, though, and we set off on the 12km trip to the hotel. The driver pointed out many attractions on the way, including the Governor’s mansion and the first of seven new flyovers (!) in the city, which have eased the traffic congestion. We soon arrived at the imposing Park Sheraton, and I was asked to check in at the Towers reception. I was given a large suite on the 24th floor, and was greeted with a complimentary half-bottle of German sparkling wine. Happy hour was between 7pm and 8:30 pm, and featured free drinks, and lots of complimentary h’ors d’oevres. That was dinner taken care of for me. The hotel was really impressive, and possibly the nicest Sheraton I have so far stayed at in Asia. It was early to bed, with my alarm set for 5:30am, to go to the airport for my flight to Singapore. My driver demonstrated the skills of a Formula One racing driver as we weaved through the rickshaws, ox-carts, buses and, somewhat strangely, many learner-drivers, on the route to the airport; we covered the distance in about 10 minutes!

At Air India check-in I was told that we would be delayed one-hour; no problem I thought: I had a planned five-hour layover in Singapore that’s just been reduced to four hours.

Unfortunately, up in the business class lounge, we were informed that the departure time would now be 11:45am – that would be 3hours and 20 minutes late. Another announcement was made, it would now be a one o’clock departure – time to call my travel agent in Sydney on my cell phone, who manages to protect me on a later SQ flight, and confirms that BA have sent a telex to SQ authorizing them to accept my BA ticket without an endorsement! Now the monitor says Air India will depart at 1:30 pm – meaning I’ve almost certainly missed my BA flight to SYD!

It was a little worrying to think that they had updated the departure time no less than four times, without any mention of what was causing the delay. There was also a complete absence of any help to reschedule missed connections.

Finally the monitor shows that the Air India A310 has landed from Mumbai, so six-hours after arriving, and thinking that I could have got up much later than 5:30am, I leave the lounge and proceed through another security check, and we quickly board. I’m seated in a rather worn seat 2D in a half full business-class cabin. One announcement of apology for the five-hour delay is made, although no mention of what caused it. The safety video is shown, which still warns of the perils of smoking when the oxygen masks are deployed; I also didn’t hear anyone say that this was a no-smoking flight, although the “no smoking” sign remained illuminated throughout.

A little amenity kit contained some interesting items, one of which was a pair of fairly large fold-up scissors. Just the thing for a passenger with air-rage, I think! After the news from BBC World, in English, an Indian movie was shown, with English sub-titles. Much singing, dancing, and low-key violence.

The meal choice, no menu, was chicken curry, lamb curry or veg. curry. I chose the chicken, and it appeared in a dish with rice and lentils. Natural yoghurt and pickles, plus half a pappadum and some foil wrapped naan bread rounded out the meal. It wasn’t at all bad. A pre-dinner scotch, and a-free flowing red Bordeaux accompanied the service.

We picked up a little time on the flight and landed at a far-out D-gate about 10-minutes before my BA flight was scheduled to depart for Sydney.

Part Six: The flight to Sydney in Economy (and the question “will this really be a six-airline trip?” will be answered) will follow.

Great reports, looking forward to the next one. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Many thanks, den1k! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif and now the final instalment:

Part Six: The flight to Sydney in Economy (will it really be a six airline trip?)


Arriving at the end of the D-wing, I saw that I had a major hike on my hands, since BA was leaving from an equally far out C-gate. I gave it my best-shot, but discovered that the transfer desk in the C-wing required one to take a number and queue - no time for that, so I went directly to the gate, where the plane was still visible, to be told that the doors had already closed. Frustrating!!

Back to the transfer desk, and take a number: "230". I see an agent sitting behind a sign with the number "229" flashing in red. The owner of ticket "229" was not responding, so I went up to said agent to be told that I should wait until "230" flashed. I tried not to let my irritation show, and in a couple of minutes of waiting for the phantom "229" she gave up, and welcomed me. Looking at my BA ticket she started to say that I would have to get it endorsed by BA, before I could use it on SQ. I gave thanks that I had called my travel agent from Chennai to get that telex sent by BA to SQ. I'm not sure how one would go about finding a BA desk in Changi to do that endorsement, especially since the last BA flight for the night had left. I told her that BA had telexed SQ, and she replied that she had not received one! I tried again, with the utmost patience, explaining that SQ had been telexed, not this particular agent. She saw my point, and got on the phone to the SQ inner sanctum, and five minutes later, her telex machine hummed, with the message from BA that I was OK to travel on their ticket on SQ! Interesting that the telex is still used, first time I've seen one in years. Stapling said telex to my ticket she handed me an economy boarding pass for the SQ flight, which was leaving in about three hours (12:10am).

This was getting to be a long day, and the comfort of a lounge would have been nice. Unfortunately, I'm only Silver on Star Alliance, and I couldn't figure out a way of getting into a lounge in Changi's terminal 2.

I browsed the shops, had a drink at the bar, and listed to some live music being played by a trio: violinist, pianist and an accordion player. The violinist, an elderly gentleman, sported pink hair - strange. I then migrated to the internet connection point, which allowed me to access my company's network for a free local call. I noted that 191 new e-mails were in my inbox, which I had not been able to access in India, so I started the download, and read, with envy, QuietLion's latest adventure.

After 30 minutes, boarding time was near, and I aborted my e-mail downloading, and packed up and walked down to the gate. I boarded after the First and Business folks, and made my way to seat 42D in Singapore Airline's 777. Although the seat next to me was occupied, the flight was not full, and I expected that I would be able to move, and get a little more space. When the doors closed, I was able to move to 41D, with empty 41E next to it. The seatback in-front had a TV screen, and the promise of a number of movies, and other programming. One negative feature of this economy cabin was that the seat recline was very little.

After take-off on the 7-hour flight, Piper-Heidsieck champagne was offered to all (in economy, mind!) plus juice or water. A hot-towel service was also provided. Menus, an amenity bag (with socks and toothbrush/paste), and headphones were passed out.

The meal cart came fairly quickly, but it was after 1:00am Singapore-time (or 4am Sydney-time), before I sampled their "Refreshment". This was a choice of:

Warm Herb Garlic Roasted Chicken in Croissant

Or

Fried Singapore Carrot Cake
(Savoury fried radish cake with prawn and egg)

Wine was also available on the cart.

I selected the chicken, which was really tasty, and had a three-times refilled glass of Australian Cabernet.

I wasn't feeling particularly sleepy, given that I was on India-time (2 1/2 hours behind Singapore), so I watched "Bring it On", a surprisingly good move about cheerleading competitions, and life behind the scenes. A nice movie for late night viewing.

The lights for breakfast came on about 2 ½ hours before landing, and the offering was:

Fruit Appetiser

Yoghurt

Braised Ee-fu Noodles with Fish Fillet, Prawns, Scallops and Leafy Greens

Or

Omelette with Chives and Chicken Sausage, Grilled Tomatoes with Potatoes

Assorted Breakfast Rolls with Butter and Preserves

I was conservative, and had the omelette, which was good. I watched a fascinating and funny BBC interview with Jeremy Paxman interviewing Bill Gates, and dozed the rest of the way to Sydney.

Sadly, this didn't turn out to be a six-airline trip after all, but rather five, with a Singapore Airlines repeat, but I think SQ almost certainly outclasses BA in the economy offering on this sector. Interesting to note the very different levels of service on the two SQ sectors.

I'm due back in Bangalore in January and I'm looking forward to it…especially if my company reverts to its old business-class policy!


The End.

A few questions/observations here.

Firstly, AI has nonstops SIN-BLR. You might want to keep that in mind before your next KTM foray!

Secondly, all AI A310s are equipped with 6-channel PTVs in Business Class. Were they not operational on your flight?

Also, the flight was probably NOT a non-smoking flight. Only Indian domestic flights and Europe/N.America flights on AI are non-smoking. However, I believe that the Business Class cabin is completely non-smoking.

There should have been a menu offered to you before departure from MAA and your meal choice collected at the time too. Its possible that time constraints prevented this, but menus should have been provided in flight otherwise. Did you get the name of the Inflight Supervisor (it should have been announced at the start and end of the flight)? If so, can you drop me an email and I will follow up and check on it for you. My dad is the Senior Manager - Inflight Service at Air India and this is the kind of passenger feedback he loves to get.

It sounds to me like SQ outclasses EVERYONE in economy! UA Premier bonus be ****ed, if I have to fly to Asia in economy, I'm flying SQ! Great report.

thanks for one of the best reports yet (other than mine).

Stephen

Excellent report VanMan. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

To B747-437B:

Yes, I was aware of the directAI flight SIN-BLR, but it was fully booked when the reservations were made. I didn't want to start the trip with one of the sectors waitlisted, hence the routing to Kathmandu.

If the plane was equipped with personal TVs, I certainly misssed them, and I didn't see any other passengers using them, either. Also, the bulkhead projetion screen was used through the flight.

Afraid I didn't get the name of the in-flight supervisor. Service, by the way, while not exactly warm and friendly, was quite efficient...I had no complaints. I simply assumed that menus were not used by AI. I'll watch out next time.

fabulous report VanMan! Post here more often!

Many thanks for the positive responses. I'll definitely lurk less often!

Really good report! I'd love to fly into Nepal myself once as a friend of mine who's there once in a while really considers it to be an adventure trip and now, having read your report, I start believing him... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Originally posted by VanMan:
If the plane was equipped with personal TVs, I certainly misssed them, and I didn't see any other passengers using them, either. Also, the bulkhead projetion screen was used through the flight.

Afraid I didn't get the name of the in-flight supervisor. Service, by the way, while not exactly warm and friendly, was quite efficient...I had no complaints. I simply assumed that menus were not used by AI. I'll watch out next time.


All of the A310s (except the new one VT-EVE which only entered service last week) DO have PTVs in the armrest of the Business Class seats. There should have been a guide to the programming in the seat pocket, as well as a feature on them in the Namaskaar inflight magazine. The bulkhead screen is ALSO used for projection.

As for the service, my dad usually deals with complaints the other way around (friendly but not efficient), so I guess he can't crack down on them too hard!

Great report btw! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Great trip report VanMan, please lurk less often. More trip reports please! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif